It's a testament to how successful the Boston Bruins have been in recent years that coming within one victory of an Eastern Conference finals appearance is considered a disappointing season.
The 2011 Stanley Cup champions made it back to the Cup Finals in the lockout- shortened season of 2013, but fell in seven games to the rival Montreal Canadiens in the second round last spring. The postseason loss to the Habs certainly stung, especially after Boston claimed the Presidents' Trophy as the best team in the regular season.
There's a good chance Boston could claim the top seed in the East, and possibly another Presidents' Trophy, in 2014-15. In fact, the Bruins' main challenge for conference supremacy may not come from another team, but the club's own salary cap constraints.
General manager Peter Chiarelli and the Bruins were compelled to let veteran forwards Jarome Iginla and Shawn Thornton walk via free agency due to cap problems. It could prove difficult for Boston to replace Iginla's 30 goals from last season and Thornton's toughness from within the organization.
Salary cap issues also kept Boston from re-signing forward Reilly Smith and defenseman Torey Krug -- a pair of restricted free agents -- until late September, when both players inked cap-friendly one-year, $1.4 million deals. Smith is coming off a 20-goal, 51-point season and fellow 23-year-old Krug tied Zdeno Chara for the team lead in points by a defenseman with 40.
Krug and Smith's bargain contracts will allow Boston to be cap compliant at the start of the season, but the club expects to have less than $500,000 of cap room. In the end, Chiarelli may be forced to trade a player or two to create more salary space with defenseman Johnny Boychuk and forward Loui Eriksson the two likeliest options.
Cap crunch aside, however, there is still a great deal of talent in Boston. The club boasts Chara, versatile centerman Patrice Bergeron, and reigning Vezina Trophy winner Tuukka Rask between the pipes, to name a few of the club's assets.
FORWARDS - Boston's defense and goaltending has been the biggest factor in getting the club to seven straight postseasons, but it also has ranked in the top five in scoring in three of the last four campaigns.
The B's averaged 3.15 goals per game in 2013-14, finishing behind only Anaheim and Chicago in the NHL rankings. The loss of Iginla could affect the club's production this season, but there is more than enough offensive talent in Beantown to get the job done.
Centerman David Krejci and physical winger Milan Lucic played with Iginla on the top line last season, but Eriksson could get the right wing job in 2014-15 if he doesn't get traded first.
Krejci was Boston's leading scorer last season, posting 69 points on 19 goals and a team-best 50 assists. However, postseason struggles did put a damper on his campaign, as the 28-year-old only managed four assists over 12 playoff tilts. That's a far cry from Boston's championship season of 2011, when Krejci topped the club with 12 goals and 23 points in the playoffs.
Lucic muscled his way to 24 goals and 59 points last season and added four goals and three assists in the postseason.
Eriksson posted 10 goals and 27 assists in 61 games during his first season in Boston. The 29-year-old Swede missed 15 games in the middle of the season due to a concussion, leading to a disappointing year for a guy who has gone over 25 goals four times in his career.
Iginla's departure isn't the only thing putting pressure on Eriksson to produce. He also was the most recognizable piece that came back to Boston when it dealt Tyler Seguin to Dallas in the summer of 2013. Seguin, a former second overall pick of the Bruins, turned in a star-making season in Dallas last season, finishing fourth in the NHL with 84 points.
The second line expects to feature Bergeron, Smith and Brad Marchand.
Bergeron, the reigning Selke winner as the league's best defensive forward, is an invaluable part of Boston's winning formula and a player who thrives playing within Julien's defensive system. The Bruins signed the 29-year-old to an eight-year contract extension worth $52 million in the summer of 2013, and the deal goes into effect this season.
In addition to taking on tough defensive assignments, Bergeron finished second on Boston in scoring last season with 62 points. He also matched Iginla for the team lead in goals with 30.
Marchand is a pesky winger known best for getting under the skin of opposing players. The 5-foot-9 sparkplug struggled at times last season, but ended the campaign with a respectable 25 goals and 28 assists while playing in all 82 games. Marchand, however, failed to score a single goal in the playoffs.
Smith, another player received from Dallas in the Seguin trade, impressed Boston with 20 goals and 31 assists last season. He'll likely play right wing on the second line at the start of the season now that the Bruins got him under contract in time.
Chris Kelly and Gregory Campbell are pegged for the last two centermen spots, although Campbell could be hindered by a mid-core injury that caused him to miss time this preseason. Kelly had nine goals and nine assists in 57 games last season for Boston, while Campbell notched 21 points (8 goals, 13 assists) in 82 contests.
Boston has difficulty generating scoring from its bottom lines, but Carl Soderberg helped the cause last season with 16 goals and 48 points in his first full NHL campaign.
Veteran wingers Daniel Paille and Ryan Spooner will be in the mix for playing time on the third and fourth lines. So could younger options Jordan Caron, Justin Florek, Matt Fraser and Alex Khokhlachev, who may be moved from his natural center position to the wing.
DEFENSE - Having turned 37 years old during last season, Chara is in the autumn of his career but the 6-foot-9 behemoth is still a unique talent on the blue line.
Boston's captain pumped in 17 goals last season thanks in large part to his booming slapshot. Chara has won the last five hardest shot competitions at NHL All-Star weekend and holds the record with a blast clocked at 108.8 miles per hour in 2012.
Chara can still get it done in his own end thanks to his enormous reach, but the once mobile big man is showing signs of slowing down. He may no longer be a Norris Trophy candidate at this stage of his career, but the big Slovakian is more than capable of logging No. 1 minutes.
As a whole, Boston's blue line is better than it was when Chara arrived in Boston in 2006. The deep group of defensemen includes solid veterans Boychuk and Dennis Seidenberg as well as burgeoning young stars like Krug and Dougie Hamilton.
Boychuk notched 23 points on five goals and 18 assists last season and sported the defense's best plus-minus rating (plus-31). Seidenberg, meanwhile, had 10 points (1G, 9A) in 34 games before suffering a season-ending knee injury in late December.
Seidenberg has been Chara's most regular partner in recent years, and his mobility was missed at the top of Boston's defensive rotation during the playoffs. The 33-year-old Seidenberg is healthy again and looking for a comeback season.
Krug led Boston's blue line with 10 playoff points last spring, and Hamilton gives the Bruins another burgeoning offensive defenseman. The 21-year-old Hamilton took a step forward last season with 25 points (7G, 18) in 64 games. Hamilton, a first-round pick (9th overall) by Boston in 2011, has a lanky 6- foot-5 frame and the skating ability to make plays on both ends of the ice.
Matt Bartkowski, Adam McQuaid, Kevan Miller and David Warsofsky all could compete for playing time on the third pairing.
GOALTENDING - Rask had a tough act to follow a few years ago when he replaced two-time Vezina Trophy winner and 2011 Conn Smythe recipient Tim Thomas.
Although Rask needs to win a Cup as a starter to break into Thomas' league, one Vezina and a Stanley Cup Finals appearance in his first two seasons as Boston's unquestioned No. 1 is a good place to start.
Rask turned in phenomenal numbers last season, going 36-15-6 with a 2.04 goals against average and .930 save percentage. The 27-year-old Finn also led the NHL with seven shutouts during his award-winning campaign.
Boston's playoff exit had little to do with Rask, who recorded a 1.99 GAA, .928 save percentage and two shutouts in 12 postseason tilts.
After letting veteran backup Chad Johnson walk via free agency, Boston is left with almost no NHL experience behind Rask. Niklas Svedberg, 25, dipped his toe in the water last season with a win in his one and only NHL game and will be the full-time backup this season.
After Svedberg, next up on Boston's organizational depth chart are Jeremy Smith, 25, and Malcolm Subban, 20. Neither player has seen action at the NHL level.
WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE - After a surprising postseason loss to Montreal, some folks are asking if Boston's championship window has passed. But besides Chara, most of the Bruins' top players seem to be in the prime of their careers, and the rest of the roster is peppered with young potential. The Bruins are heavy favorites to win the Atlantic Division title again, and they could be headed for another No. 1 seed in the East. Boston may not match up well with the very best clubs in the powerhouse West like Chicago and Los Angeles, but a trip to the Cup Finals could be easily attainable.
[SportsNetwork.com]
